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Babe Ruth World Series festivities begin Wednesday

Neal Denton, Baxter Bulletin
Published 1:47 p.m. CT Aug. 7, 2018

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Jacob Czanstkowski of the Mountain Home 13-year-old Babe Ruth team catches the ball during a recent practice. The MH 13s host the Babe Ruth World Series with games beginning Thursday at McClain Park.(Photo: Neal Denton/The Baxter Bulletin)Buy Photo

Ten teams from across the United States will visit the Twin Lakes Area for the second year in a row when the Babe Ruth 13-year-old World Series kicks off its festivities on Wednesday in Mountain Home.

The tournament’s games will last eight days, starting Thursday, with pool play lasting through Monday and bracket play going from Aug. 14-16.

The 10 teams in the Babe Ruth World Series will be split into two five-team divisions, American and National. Each team will play a round-robin format against the other four teams in their respective divisions. At the end of division play, the top three teams from each division will advance to a single-elimination bracket to determine the world champion.

“It’s a great thing for the community," said Tom Czanstkowski, Mountain Home Youth Baseball president and a coach of the host 13-year-old team. "It gave us a great deal of exposure last year. The A&P Commission jumped on it right away. The hotels and restaurants, it’s an amazing boost in these summer months."

Mountain Home's first game will be at 8 p.m. Thursday against Bemidji, Minn.

Mountain Home, which hosted the event for the first time last year, also hosted the Babe Ruth Softball Southwest Regional just a few weeks ago at Keller Park.

"The softball organization just had that huge regional here," Czanstkowski said. "Something like this has exponential benefits to all those involved. Those people are here for 10 days. It’s a big boost. It’s amazing to host it here again and for these kids to luck into it being so close again.”

The 13-year-old level is when players play on a full-size field for the first time.

“It is a big advantage to have seen last year’s games on this field, to see what happens in the outfield,” Czanstkowski said. “It takes a big poke or a really bad play to hit it to the wall. Even for high school, this is a big field, so for 13s, it’s really big. You’ll look at the outfielders as a spectator and say, ‘why are they playing so shallow?’ but they have to. There will be a lot of triples.”

Mountain Home's players are excited to host the tournament, which will be the third World Series in which they have participated in the past four seasons — all located conveniently close to home.

The Mountain Home team qualified for the 10-year-old World Series, which was held in Jonesboro, and participated in the 12-year-old World Series last year in Branson, Mo.

The team advanced into bracket play last year, but returned home early enough to catch some of the 13-year-old action at McClain Park. So, the team knows what to expect as far as the talent it will face.

"They were huge and could hit it way out there and run for a while," Mountain Home player Dillon Drewry said of last year's tournament. "But the turf is easy to get ground balls off of.”

The turf itself gives the hosts an advantage, as most teams aren't used to playing on the artificial surface.

“We’ve been practicing on here since the start of July," Mountain Home player Jacob Czanstkowski said. "It will feel much more relaxing and comfortable, so when it comes to game time, we won’t have a bad sleep like maybe in a hotel room.”

Temperatures are expected to cool down slightly, with highs in the upper-80s going through the weekend. But hotter weather could be an advantage for players in the southern states.

“Some of the states that are coming, it’s going to be really hot for them," Mountain Home player Ky Bickford said. "We’re used to it, but somewhere like Nebraska wouldn’t be used to it. The turf will make it even hotter."

For more information, visit 13.baberuthworldseries.org. Games will be livestreamed on the tournament's Facebook page "Mountain Home Babe Ruth World Series"